The Happiness Contagion Gets Me Every Time

There’s this quote from John Cusack’s character, Lloyd, from the hit 80s film, Say Anything,

Get in a good mood. How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood and be in a good mood?

Happiness. It’s contagious you guys. This isn’t new, groundbreaking information. Think of how you feel when you’re smiling and someone smiles back at you. And how you end up feeling when you’re not smiling until you look at someone who is smiling. That. That feeling of happiness that comes out of nowhere and gets all up in your business.

So, “the happiness contagion” is actually something that I think about often while around others, say, in the office. You can either be the guy who’s usually a little grumpy, or you can be the person who when asked how your day is going, you simply respond, “best damn day of my life.” Because why not? You’re here. You’re alive. You’re employed.

Now, that grumpy person. Imagine they come bouncing into the office today in a good mood. You’d be surprised, right? But think of how that might affect your mood. It would probably make you happy. Or happier, if you were already drinking the sunshine-flavored Kool-Aid this morning.

In a world with so much bad—seriously, just turn on the news—it’s so much better to just choose happy. And if you think you can’t find anything to be happy about, hello, that’s what the internet is for. For instance, Real Life Emojis, seen above. Or baby animals. Or free overnight shipping on almost anything from any website ever… because that’s a thing these days, people.

No one can force you to be happy. Not me, not the baby animals and certainly not the robots that make shipping automation happen. But for today, and well, for any day, really, I’m going to ask you to get in a good mood. This is my way, today, of spreading the happiness through the written word. How else can we spread happiness today?